479 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
479 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
---
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stage: Plan
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group: Project Management
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
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---
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# Labels **(FREE)**
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As your count of issues, merge requests, and epics grows in GitLab, it gets more challenging
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to keep track of those items. Especially as your organization grows from just a few people to
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hundreds or thousands. With labels, you can organize and tag your work, and track the work items
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you're interested in.
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Labels are a key part of [issue boards](issue_board.md). With labels you can:
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- Categorize [epics](../group/epics/index.md), issues, and merge requests using colors and descriptive titles like
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`bug`, `feature request`, or `docs`.
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- Dynamically filter and manage [epics](../group/epics/index.md), issues, and merge requests.
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- [Search lists of issues, merge requests, and epics](../search/index.md#search-issues-and-merge-requests),
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as well as [issue boards](../search/index.md#issue-boards).
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## Types of labels
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You can use two types of labels in GitLab:
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- **Project labels** can be assigned to issues and merge requests in that project only.
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- **Group labels** can be assigned to issues, merge requests, and [epics](../group/epics/index.md)
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in any project in the selected group or its subgroups.
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## Assign and unassign labels
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> Unassigning labels with the **X** button [introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/216881) in GitLab 13.5.
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You can assign labels to any issue, merge request, or epic.
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To assign or unassign a label:
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1. In the **Labels** section of the sidebar, select **Edit**.
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1. In the **Assign labels** list, search for labels by typing their names.
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You can search repeatedly to add more labels.
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The selected labels are marked with a checkmark.
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1. Select the labels you want to assign or unassign.
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1. To apply your changes to labels, select **X** next to **Assign labels** or select any area
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outside the label section.
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Alternatively, to unassign a label, select the **X** on the label you want to unassign.
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You can also assign and unassign labels with [quick actions](quick_actions.md):
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- Assign labels with `/label`.
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- Remove labels with `/unlabel`.
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- Remove all labels and assign new ones with `/relabel`.
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## View available labels
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### View project labels
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/241990) in GitLab 13.5: the label list in a project also shows all inherited labels.
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To view the **project's labels**:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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Or:
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1. View an issue or merge request.
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1. On the right sidebar, in the **Labels** section, select **Edit**.
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1. Select **Manage project labels**.
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The list of labels includes both the labels created in the project and
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all labels created in the project's ancestor groups. For each label, you can see the
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project or group path where it was created.
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### View group labels
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To view the **group's labels**:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Groups** and find your group.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Group information > Labels**.
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Or:
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1. View an epic.
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1. On the right sidebar, in the **Labels** section, select **Edit**.
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1. Select **Manage group labels**.
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The list includes all labels created only in the group. It does not list any labels created in
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the group's projects.
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## Create a label
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project or group.
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### Create a project label
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To create a project label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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1. Select **New label**.
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1. In the **Title** field, enter a short, descriptive name for the label. You
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can also use this field to create [scoped, mutually exclusive labels](#scoped-labels).
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1. Optional. In the **Description** field, enter additional
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information about how and when to use this label.
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1. Optional. Select a color by selecting from the available colors, or enter a hex color value for
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a specific color in the **Background color** field.
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1. Select **Create label**.
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### Create a project label from an issue or merge request
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You can also create a new project label from an issue or merge request.
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Labels you create this way belong to the same project as the issue or merge request.
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.
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To do so:
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1. View an issue or merge request.
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1. On the right sidebar, in the **Labels** section, select **Edit**.
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1. Select **Create project label**.
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1. Fill in the name field. You can't specify a description if creating a label this way.
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You can add a description later by [editing the label](#edit-a-label).
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1. Optional. Select a color by selecting from the available colors, or enter a hex color value for
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a specific color.
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1. Select **Create**.
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### Create a group label
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To create a group label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Groups** and find your group.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Group information > Labels**.
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1. Select **New label**.
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1. In the **Title** field, enter a short, descriptive name for the label. You
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can also use this field to create [scoped, mutually exclusive labels](#scoped-labels).
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1. Optional. In the **Description** field, enter additional
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information about how and when to use this label.
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1. Optional. Select a color by selecting from the available colors, or enter a hex color value for
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a specific color in the **Background color** field.
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1. Select **Create label**.
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### Create a group label from an epic **(PREMIUM)**
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You can also create a new group label from an epic.
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Labels you create this way belong to the same group as the epic.
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the group.
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To do so:
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1. View an epic.
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1. On the right sidebar, in the **Labels** section, select **Edit**.
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1. Select **Create group label**.
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1. Fill in the name field. You can't specify a description if creating a label this way.
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You can add a description later by [editing the label](#edit-a-label).
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1. Optional. Select a color by selecting from the available colors,enter input a hex color value
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for a specific color.
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1. Select **Create**.
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## Edit a label
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project or group.
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### Edit a project label
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To edit a **project** label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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1. Next to the label you want to edit, select **Edit** (**{pencil}**).
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### Edit a group label
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To edit a **group** label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Groups** and find your group.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Group information > Labels**.
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1. Next to the label you want to edit, select **Edit** (**{pencil}**).
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## Delete a label
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WARNING:
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If you delete a label, it is permanently deleted. All references to the label are removed from the
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system and you cannot undo the deletion.
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.
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### Delete a project label
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To delete a **project** label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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1. Either:
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- Next to the **Subscribe** button, select (**{ellipsis_v}**).
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- Next to the label you want to edit, select **Edit** (**{pencil}**).
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1. Select **Delete**.
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### Delete a group label
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To delete a **group** label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Groups** and find your group.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Group information > Labels**.
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1. Either:
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- Next to the **Subscribe** button, select (**{ellipsis_v}**).
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- Next to the label you want to edit, select **Edit** (**{pencil}**).
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1. Select **Delete**.
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## Promote a project label to a group label
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/231472) in GitLab 13.6: promoting a project label keeps that label's ID and changes it into a group label. Previously, promoting a project label created a new group label with a new ID and deleted the old label.
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You might want to make a project label available for other
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projects in the same group. Then, you can promote the label to a group label.
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If other projects in the same group have a label with the same title, they are all
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merged with the new group label. If a group label with the same title exists, it is
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also merged.
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WARNING:
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Promoting a label is a permanent action and cannot be reversed.
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project's parent group.
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To promote a project label to a group label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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1. Next to the **Subscribe** button, select the three dots (**{ellipsis_v}**) and
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select **Promote to group label**.
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All issues, merge requests, issue board lists, issue board filters, and label subscriptions
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with the old labels are assigned to the new group label.
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The new group label has the same ID as the previous project label.
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## Promote a subgroup label to the parent group
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It's not possible to directly promote a group label to the parent group.
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To achieve this, use the following workaround.
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Prerequisites:
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- There must be a group that contains subgroups ("parent group").
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- There must be a subgroup in the parent group, that has a label you want to promote.
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for both groups.
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To "promote" the label to the parent group:
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1. In the parent group, [create a label](#create-a-group-label) with the same name as the original
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one. We recommend making it a different color so you don't mistake the two while you're doing this.
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1. In the subgroup, [view its labels](#view-group-labels). You should see the two labels and where
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they come from:
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1. Next to the subgroup label (the old one), select **Issues**, **Merge requests**, or **Epics**.
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1. Add the new label to issues, merge requests, and epics that have the old label.
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To do it faster, use [bulk editing](issues/managing_issues.md#bulk-edit-issues-from-a-group).
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1. In the subgroup or the parent group, [delete the label](#delete-a-group-label) that belongs to
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the lower-level group.
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You should now have a label in the parent group that is named the same as the old one, and added
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to the same issues, MRs, and epics.
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## Generate default project labels
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If a project or its parent group has no labels, you can generate a default set of project
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labels from the label list page.
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.
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- The project must have no labels present.
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To add the default labels to the project:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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1. Select **Generate a default set of labels**.
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The following labels are created:
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- `bug`
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- `confirmed`
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- `critical`
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- `discussion`
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- `documentation`
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- `enhancement`
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- `suggestion`
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- `support`
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## Scoped labels **(PREMIUM)**
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Teams can use scoped labels to annotate issues, merge requests, and epics with mutually exclusive
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labels. By preventing certain labels from being used together, you can create more complex workflows.
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A scoped label uses a double-colon (`::`) syntax in its title, for example: `workflow::in-review`.
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An issue, merge request, or epic cannot have two scoped labels, of the form `key::value`,
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with the same `key`. If you add a new label with the same `key` but a different `value`,
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the previous `key` label is replaced with the new label.
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<i class="fa fa-youtube-play youtube" aria-hidden="true"></i>
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For a video overview, see [Scoped Labels Speed Run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebyCiKMFODg).
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### Filter by scoped labels
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/12285) in GitLab 14.4.
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To filter issue, merge request, or epic lists by a given scope, enter
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`<scope>::*` in the searched label name.
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For example, filtering by the `platform::*` label returns issues that have `platform::iOS`,
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`platform::Android`, or `platform::Linux` labels.
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NOTE:
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Filtering by scoped labels not available on the [issues or merge requests dashboard pages](../search/index.md#search-issues-and-merge-requests).
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### Scoped labels examples
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**Example 1.** Updating issue priority:
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1. You decide that an issue is of low priority, and assign it the `priority::low` label.
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1. After more review, you realize the issue's priority is higher increased, and you assign it the
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`priority::high` label.
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1. Because an issue shouldn't have two priority labels at the same time, GitLab removes the
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`priority::low` label.
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**Example 2.** You want a custom field in issues to track the operating system platform
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that your features target, where each issue should only target one platform.
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You create three labels:
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- `platform::iOS`
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- `platform::Android`
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- `platform::Linux`
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If you assign any of these labels to an issue automatically removes any other existing label that
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starts with `platform::`.
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**Example 3.** You can use scoped labels to represent the workflow states of your teams.
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Suppose you have the following labels:
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- `workflow::development`
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- `workflow::review`
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- `workflow::deployed`
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If an issue already has the label `workflow::development` and a developer wants to show that the
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issue is now under review, they assign the `workflow::review`, and the `workflow::development` label
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is removed.
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The same happens when you move issues across label lists in an
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[issue board](issue_board.md#create-workflows). With scoped labels, team members not working in an
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issue board can also advance workflow states consistently in issues themselves.
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For a video explanation, see:
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<div class="video-fallback">
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See the video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BCBby6du3c">Use scoped labels for custom fields and custom workflows</a>.
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</div>
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<figure class="video-container">
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<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4BCBby6du3c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"> </iframe>
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</figure>
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### Nested scopes
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You can create a label with a nested scope by using multiple double colons `::` when creating
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it. In this case, everything before the last `::` is the scope.
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For example, if your project has these labels:
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- `workflow::backend::review`
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- `workflow::backend::development`
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- `workflow::frontend::review`
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An issue **can't** have both `workflow::backend::review` and `workflow::backend::development`
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labels at the same time, because they both share the same scope: `workflow::backend`.
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On the other hand, an issue **can** have both `workflow::backend::review` and `workflow::frontend::review`
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labels at the same time, because they both have different scopes: `workflow::frontend` and `workflow::backend`.
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## Receive notifications when a label is used
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You can subscribe to a label to [receive notifications](../profile/notifications.md) whenever the
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label is assigned to an issue, merge request, or epic.
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To subscribe to a label:
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1. [View the label list page.](#view-available-labels)
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1. To the right of any label, select **Subscribe**.
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1. Optional. If you are subscribing to a group label from a project, select either:
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- **Subscribe at project level** to be notified about events in this project.
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- **Subscribe at group level**: to be notified about events in the whole group.
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## Set label priority
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Labels can have relative priorities, which are used when you sort issue and merge request lists
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by [label priority](issues/sorting_issue_lists.md#sorting-by-label-priority) and [priority](issues/sorting_issue_lists.md#sorting-by-priority).
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When prioritizing labels, you must do it from a project.
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It's not possible to do it from the group label list.
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NOTE:
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Priority sorting is based on the highest priority label only.
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[This discussion](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/14523) considers changing this.
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Prerequisites:
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- You must have at least the Reporter role for the project.
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To prioritize a label:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Projects** and find your project.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Project information > Labels**.
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1. Next to a label you want to prioritize, select the star (**{star-o}**).
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This label now appears at the top of the label list, under **Prioritized Labels**.
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To change the relative priority of these labels, drag them up and down the list.
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The labels higher in the list get higher priority.
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To learn what happens when you sort by priority or label priority, see
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[Sorting and ordering issue lists](issues/sorting_issue_lists.md).
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## Real-time changes to labels
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/241538) in GitLab 14.10 with a [feature flag](../../administration/feature_flags.md) named `realtime_labels`, disabled by default.
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FLAG:
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On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is not available. To make it available, ask an
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administrator to [enable the feature flag](../../administration/feature_flags.md) named `realtime_labels`.
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On GitLab.com, this feature is unavailable.
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Changed labels are immediately visible to other users, without refreshing the page, on the following:
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- Epics
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- Incidents
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- Issues
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- Merge requests
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## Troubleshooting
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### Some label titles end with `_duplicate<number>`
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In specific circumstances it was possible to create labels with duplicate titles in the same
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namespace.
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To resolve the duplication, [in GitLab 13.2](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/21384)
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and later, some duplicate labels have `_duplicate<number>` appended to their titles.
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You can safely change these labels' titles if you prefer.
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For details of the original problem, see [issue 30390](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/30390).
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